Member-only story
WRITERS ON SUBSTACK & MEDIUM: YOU HAVE MORE READERS THAN YOU THINK
Both platforms are rather stingy in who they count as a reader, excluding many who should be included. We also discuss LinkedIn.
The most common grievance heard from bloggers, newsletter writers, and writers posting on any platform, is standard: why don’t they have more subscribers and followers? Why aren’t more people reading them?
The answer may surprise many writers: the number of subscribers and followers is not the sum total of your readers, and the number of recorded “reads” or “views” is for the most part limited. Medium gives a “read” only on paid posts read by paid subscribers to Medium, and only if they are on for more than thirty seconds. Substack credits a “view” only when it is read from Substack.com or the Substack app, but there is no limitation on who they count.
[Note: whether called a “view” or a “read,” it means someone opened the email or clicked on the site or app to look at the piece. That is different than an “impression,” which just means notice was sent, but it does not mean the piece itself was opened or seen.]
I write a Substack newsletter, and I post on Medium. In both cases, I almost always crosspost, and also post on Facebook and LinkedIn. I can easily see how many people have opened the post on LinkedIn, and how many have…
